World Green Building Day 2009

Today (23 September), celebrations will begin for the first World Green Building Day – an initiative of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC).

Ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the event sees green building councils (14 in total) across the globe come together to “ensure buildings play a central part in any post-Kyoto framework”.

“According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), building-related greenhouse gas emissions could almost double by 2030,” says Tony Arnel – Chair of both the WorldGBC and the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).

In Canada the WorldGBC Leader Summit, in conjunction with the IIDEX/NeoCon Conference and Toronto Green Building Festival, is bringing together global industry leaders to explore the potential of green buildings to reduce carbon emissions, with key speakers including architect Karan Grover and advisor to the Obama Administration, Frank Biden.

Australian celebrations will be centred on Melbourne on Thursday 24 September where the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) will launch the World GBC Asia Pacific Network. Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance will officially launch the network at The Gauge building in Melbourne.

“The member nations of the WorldGBC are undertaking a number of initiatives to highlight the effectiveness of green buildings policies and the use of green building tools in reducing GHG emissions, including the development of common carbon metrics between the leading green building rating tools to enable consistent measurement of carbon savings from green buildings,” Arnel says.

Hero image: Melbourne’s ’The Gauge’. The name ‘The Gauge’ reflects the idea of measurement and, after becoming the first building in Australia to receive a 6 Star Green Star – Office As Built v2 certified rating, it is now the yardstick for the industry to gauge its progress on environmental sustainability in new commercial developments. The building had previously achieved a 6 Star Green Star – Office Design v2 rating.